Caen Hill reopens at Easter

Published: Monday, 22 March 2010

THOUGH Caen Hill Flight on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Devizes will reopen at Easter, all the scheduled work has not been completed.

It was intended to replace 16 gates, but only 12 have been replaced, with Mark Stephens, British Waterways' Waterway Manager, Kennet & Avon Canal, explaining:

"We had aimed to replace 16 new gates in this period, but we were unable to start works on site as planned, due to the canal being completely frozen for nearly two weeks in January. The team have been working extremely hard, and have managed to replace 12 gates, and carry out essential maintenance to the lock chamber walls whilst the flight was dewatered."

Completely closed

The flight has been completely closed, to both boaters and towpath users since January, whilst the work was in progress.  It is hoped to replace the remaining lock gates during the next winter maintenance period.

We are told:

'The winter works programme is part of the annual £100 millions that British Waterways spends on maintenance of Britain's 2,200-mile inland waterway network. For every £1.00 that British Waterways spends on the waterways, 33p comes from Government grants, 16p from third party funders, 13p from boaters and 38p from the organisation's other commercial activities such as property and utilities'.